HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-11-21, Page 2WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1979
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published'each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising
WIWI L$
oirrartfu.
BLUE
RIBBON
AWARD
1979
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a tear.
Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each.
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len
gBrussels Post
For the better
People have long complained about the unfairness of the local tax
system but now at last some of that system may be straightening itself
out.
With the introduction of the Section 186 tax assessment which is to
bring overassessments down, and underassessments up, tax portions
should now be on a more even keel.
And although some new systems are introduced right into legislation
without any concern shown to people's feelings on the matter, the
Section 86 assessment is a different matter. Open houses will be held,
so that assessors can explain how the new assessments for different
• properties were derived, and the taxpayer if not satisfied with
explanations, will still be able to appeal her or his assessment.
Of course the revised assessment is not going to go over well with
everyone involved, but it seems to be a much fairer system. A lot of
municipalities in Huron County seem to agree as many of them are
going ahead with the new system.
Thanks for the response
Demand for the Christmas cookbooks has been high. It's obvious
that a lot of people have appreciated the effort that went into them, as
many compliments have been received at all three newspaper offices.
And people are gathering a number of the books up to send to
relatives as Christmas presents. It's not often that newspapers get
complimented for the work they've done, but judging from the
response to the cookbooks;staff here knows it was one effort that was
worthwhile and appreciated.
And thanks once again to the people who submitted the recipes. It's
good when the newspaper and the community can work together to
accomplish something positive.
.r; •F 9.41..-,. 14
Sugar and spice
By Bill Smiley
Two or three years ago, I swore I'd never
write another column about Remembrance
Day. I'd milked every emotion, flattened
every cliche, and I thought perhaps it was
time to let it fade away, as old soldiers never
do.
However, I reckoned without our vice-
principal. Each year, for the past three or
four, as Remembrance Day approaches, he
sidles up and wonders "if I could have a
minute of your time?" That means he wants
something.
If he wanted to bawl me out, he'd
probably say, "Mr. Smiley, I'd like to see
you in my office at 3:45." When I reported
at that time, he'd likely give me the blast, in
front of witnesses, and I'd tell him to go to
hell, or shove it where the sun never.shines,
or something equally vivacious and vulgar.
Vice-principals do not easily upset old
fighter pilots.
But when Dave give me the old soft soap
and asks if I could do something about a
Remembrance Day programme for the
school, I get all soft and gooey and limply
agree.
When I joined the high school staff, there
were plenty of veterans of World War II. A
bomber pilot or two, a navigator, a radar
man, some air force ex-technicians, and a
rabble of former navy and army types,
Nowadays, I'M just about the oldest veteran
On the staff. so I'm stuck with the
Remembrance Day hokum. The oldest
veteran is a German, who Night in the
North Africa campaign, was wounded, and
spelt the rest of the war in a prison camp it.
the States.
It would hardly do to have him talking to
the students about "our sacrifices in two
great world wars." He might get carried
away and say something like, "If it hadn't
been for that maniac, Hitler, we would have
kicked the stuffing out of you."
So I'm stuck with it. For a few years, we
had a full period programme, with the
students making it up. They were awful. Full
of folk songs, like, "Where have all the
soldiers gone?", and the local Legion
marching around on the stage of the
cafetorium getting all tangled up in their
flags, and the reading of a List of the Fallen.
For the kids, it was a period off school,
and a sort of bewilderment about what these
crazy adults had been up to, in a time of
which they knew nothing.
So we gradually cut it down. The Last Post
was eliminated. I gave such an anti-war talk
at one of these sessions that even the
students were startled.
For the last two Years, I've been asked to
write a two or three minute "message"
about Remembrance Day, full of meaning,
poignancy and sentiment.
I'd never give an assignment like that to a
student. It would be like asking them to give
a summary of the Bible in 200 words.
However, I'm going to do it again this
year, because I am soft in the head, or
something. Let us hope that next year, the
thing will be reduced to an announcement
"We will now honor our war dead with one
minute's silence. On the sound of the bleep,
shut up for one minute. Then go to your
•regular classes."
Here is a sample' of what I write. It is
spoken into a mike by a student who doesn't
know how to use a microphone and has a bad
cold. This is last year'S bit.
"When you are yOUng, life is forever.
Why did they ever decide to make 1979
the International Year of the Child?
This "celebration" has come at a time in
history when children have never before
been so worthless in the eyes of society.
Sure we treat our children better today
than in the past. We don't make children
go to work in the mines or the factories for
14-hour days to be sure. We don't condone
parents taking children to the woodshed
and flailing away with anything handy
when they feel discipline is required. Our
schools stress understanding, not intimid-
ation these days. So thinking back to the
distant days of our childhood past we may
envy the kids of today's generation.
Yet children growing up in the 1970's
must be able to gather an uneasy feeling
after a while that they are the excess
baggage of our western society. Treatment
of children in the old days may not have
been kind but at least children were a
desired commodity. Even if for only
economic terms parents wanted children
because they could work on the farm, could
earn a few pennies extra working those
horrible hours in factories under conditions
children shouldn't have been exposed to.
In contrast children today are looked at
as something that stands in the way of
economic prosperity. For a young couple
getting married the decision is often
between having a new gadget-filled house
and a new gadget-filled car and having
children. Children are a problem. Having
children means certain time will be lost
from work while the wife is in the advanced
stages of pregnancy. The decision must
either be made then whether one of the
partners is going to stay home to look after
the children or if both will continue to work
and look for someone else to look after the
child. If the former course is chosen then a
large portion of the family income is lost. If
daycare is chosen then there is still a high
expense of paying for it.
But above all that there's just the bother
of it all. I mean it's pretty hard to go out to
the disco three times a week if you've got
kids at home. It cramps your style as a
world traveller if you have to worry about
either travelling with the kids or, finding
some relatives to dump them on.
And so in our hedonistic lifestyle of the
1970's children are definitely unfashion-
able. There is no room for children in the
world of the young swinging professional
couple. This group has turned an economic
and social decision into a moral one as well.
When you are old, Death sits grinning and
nodding at your elbow."
"Hundreds of thousands of young Cana-
dians sneered at that old witch, Death, and
offered their most precious possessions,
themselves, to the bullets and the shrapnel,
the mortars and the cannon. They didn't say
to themselves, "I'm going to die so that the
students of Blank Secondary School can have
gravy on their french fries."
"They didn't say much of anything: They
just went off to fight against something they
thought was evil.
"Most of them were just kids, two or three
years older than you are. They had the same
hang-ups you have: bad marks in math;
frustrated love; uncertainty about the future.
"Maybe they weren't too bright. Maybe
they should have said, 'I ain't gonna get
killed in some stupid war over in Europe.'
"Maybe. But they went. And they were
killed, in their thousands. So that you can
have gravy on your french fries. And a lot of
other things you take for granted.
"Most of us don't want to leave the world
without making some little mark on it. Every
human being is a precious thing. Whatever
you do, you will leave something of yourself
behind, even if it is only dust.
"Those young fellows who were killed in
France and Holland and Italy didn't have
much chance of leaving anything behind.
"But they left a memory. Once a year, on
Remembrance Day, we take a silent moment
to think about those laughing boys - and
most of them were boys - who went across
the ocean so that we could have freedom of
speech, open elections, letters to the editor,
and gravy on outr french fries,"
What in e World am I going to Write this
ye
th
ar?
Isn't the world already overcrowded? they
ask. Mustn't we do our part to control the
population explosion? Isn't it thoughtless
to bring a child into this world where they
could be killed by atomic warfare, poisoned
by acid rain or die from breathing too much
leaked chlorine gas?
Surely as they grow older the children of
the 70's must sense the low pribrity I hey
and their friends have in this hedonistic
society. Those who argue for abortion and
other birth control measures say it is wrong
to bring an unwanted child into this world
and yet it seems we have a whole
generation of unwanted children in the
world; unwanted not by their parents, but
society in general.
Take a look at children's favourite
learning tool for instance: television. After
watching hours of television featuring
young, unattached swingers from Mork
and Mind y to Charlie's Angels the kids
must begin to wonder about their own
place in society. Why are there no children
there?
To those old enough to know that
television is designed for maximum expo-
sure to the audience that spends the most
money, the current trend in television is
easily understood. Demographic research
shows that the people with the most money
to spend are the young people without
families. They're not interested in children
either in their home or on television and
thus the kids disappear. Gone are the days
when the family with 2.3 kids was the most
lucrative market for television advertisers;
the days when Father Knows Best, Leave it
to Beaver and My Three Sons were the
ultimate in programming.
And so we have International Year of the
Child declared in this era when the child is
anything but something to celebrate in our
society. It seems like giving a party to
which nobody comes. While the year may
emphasize the plight of children in other
parts of the world where food, clothing,
shelter are the problems, it has done
nothing for the situation here in North
America. Instead we deal with the
problems of enrollment declines in schools
and the other headaches that our lack of
importance of children has brought. And
the question must be asked: who will feed
the hungry mouths of the third world in
another generation when we have such a
small working population in the prosperous
west? And who will look after today's
swingers in their old age?
Brownies plan
concert
The mothers of Brussels Brownies had a
meting November 14 with 11 members
present. Brownies made plans for the
Christmas concert at the Brussels Public
School on December 3rd at 8 p.m.
Everyone is welcome and a silver collection
will be accepted at the door.
This is to aid in the support of the
BrowniesiadOpted Foster Child. Her name
is Prima Sandi, eight years old and she
lives in. Bolivia, South America, As well as
support of the child the Brownies help the
whole family of eight
Plans were also made for several get-
S
togetherS in December. These include a
special Christmas present to the village of
Brussels. This is to take place on the
evening of DeceMber 20th in the form of
Caroling on a hay Wagon around town.
Behind the scenes
by Keith Roulston
Do we really care about kids?
Remembering again
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